Charlemagne19 posted:As odd as this may seem I find that a tremendously sucky ending.
SithStarSlayer posted: In one fell swoop we have Malak's name change and Scion's revised/altered/tweaked backstory as the Lord of Pain.
Grey1 posted:I'm the first one who's read it and posts here? Tee hee... Oi, spoilers... I normally don't like these, but I guess some general developments are okay to post... the best part are the little details and the actual character interaction anyway. It starts right in the duel between Zayne and Lucien. During a break, Zayne tries to talk Lucien into going after Haazen instead, going something like "ok, do what he wants, you've always only done what other people want" (no direct quote). Haazen gets a delivery of the Jedi Council's hidden Sith artifacts in the garden. Gryph flees to the same spot. Then comes the duel part from the preview, which ends with the Barrison statue falling onto Lucien. Zayne does another stab at the buried body, then kneels down before Haazen. Which is of course a ruse. Once Zayne cuts of the arm with the gauntlet, he and Gryph get catapulted away by the Force. By - surprise surprise - Lucien, who set up a con with Zayne. Lucien uses the gauntlet to command the ships to blow up the compound, which should take care of Haazen, Lucien, all known Sith artifacts, everything Covenant, and Zayne's lightsaber, while we're at it. Zayne and Gryph survived, of course, which allows Zayne for one of his best lines ever (which should be the new catchphrase for the series) and a nice Zayne/Gryph moment. Everything else gets summed up on the next few pages while Gryph and Jarael listen to Karath's official speech - with the official story being in the interest of everyone involved, meaning not really truthful. Jarael says that Alek testified for Zayne, but left again because the Council is against additional Jedi groups more than ever. He's also calling himself Malak until peace has been restored (and we all know how that will turn out). Jarael didn't go with him, even though she wanted to, but rather looks after Rohlan. Gryph thinks he'll lose Zayne to the Jedi, but here's the big surprise - he doesn't. Zayne leaves the Jedi to become Gryph's partner, but took a new saber and one of those black vaderish knight outfits with him. Party on, Zayne! Party on, Gryph! Meanwhile, back on a ranch on a distant moon, Lucien has gone into exile, having survived thanks to that Sith artifact. Which showed him the way to become a Lord Of Pain. Which he didn't, thanks to Daddy, who always didn't do what others expected. So Lucien goes to this secret private moon where he formed his own hidden Covenant of farmer Jedi. Everyone (including Big L) is wearing the brown simple-man-Obi-Wan-robes, and Lucien says the Jedi will live on even after troubled times, finally having seen his future. Tadaa. So come on, I want to discuss this thing. First of all, as for Lucien, I suppose we won't see him again in the comic - his arc seems to be over for good. Finito. An Ex-arc. That said, it still toys with Lucien being Sion, the Lord of Pain - Lucien gets hurt, even though not nearly enough to look like Sion. He's got more resemblance to Kreia, by the way... His private moon is orbiting a Mustafar-like planet that hangs in the sky, I'm not sure if that has to mean/foreshadow anything. However, in personal canon, we can still assume that he started down the dark path and that it dominates his destiny forever... I was one of the first to invest into this theory, so I'll defend it until JJM explicitly states that he never, ever thought about Lucien being similar to Sion until the fan speculation was there, and that he only did these final two Sion mentions as a tease or a nod or something. It's not hard to do, is it? Zayne's choice isn't really that surprising, and I guess it won't affect the stories as we already have the concept of the wandering "freelance-Jedi" who's still doing good. I wonder why he got a replacement lightsaber, though... I mean, ok, OOU it was the intention to shuffle things up with a new saber(colour, presumably, judging by future covers). IU, however, if the Jedi let him go with all that training and all, why let him have a saber (and look like a real Jedi to the outside world) at a time when they explicitly want to totally control the flock? The huge Lucien and Zayne con can be seen coming as soon as Zayne kneels down. It's a bit strange when we last see Zayne getting through to Lucien, then the next time they come around, they fight again. And when Zayne goes totally out of character, we know that something is up. Although the smashing and stabbing once again nourished hopes for Lucien becoming Sion. Some really iconic imagery in there, and even though lots of the cleanup happens only in expository dialogue, it's a fun "final issue" for the arc. Judging by the letter column, the plan is to have about a year of random adventures for the CarGryph Crew right now. I guess they'll finally sneak a new arc into that material, but as for now, we can go a bit slower on the conspiracy theories.
Ackbar_Van_Gungan posted:I had another thought on the last 2 or 3 pages. Aside from the references to buying the moon, Lucien could very well be dead and in a Force netherworld with other deceased Jedi. The Hellish world in the sky could be the home to the darksiders. There would be something simplistic and elegant in that duality that I would love. More from a metaphorical perspective than a physical place. And if we never see Lucien again that might be my personal retcon.
PointGiven posted:In the end when Lucien is with the farmer Jedi on the moon, did anyone else think the tall black, white bearded Jedi was Jolee Bindo? Cuz I sure did
cbagmjg posted:Zayne's new lightsaber was Lucien's old one.
Charlemagne19 posted:Zayne's choice rubbed me the wrong way on countless levels.